Huntington Tower, earlier known as FirstMerit Tower, First National Bank Building, the First Central Tower and the First Central Trust Building, is a skyscraper in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

. The centerpiece of downtown Akron, it sits in the Cascade Plaza at the corner of S Main St and East Mill Street. The tower has been the city's tallest building since its completion in 1931. The 27-story building is

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

in style and is covered in

glazed architectural terra-cotta Glazed architectural terra cotta is a ceramic masonry building material used as a decorative skin. It featured widely in the 'terracotta revival' from the 1880s until the 1930s. It was used in the UK, United States, Canada and Australia and ...

. Its lobby is built of

Tennessee marble Tennessee marble is a type of crystalline limestone found only in East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Long esteemed by architects and builders for its pinkish-gray color and the ease with which it is polished, the stone has been use ...

, white brick, and terra cotta, and features a large banking hall with arched windows. The tower is also noted for its role in local broadcasting. Studios for

WAKR WAKR (1590 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Akron, Ohio, and known as "Soft Hits 93.5 FM". Locally owned and operated by Rubber City Radio Group, Inc., the station primarily services the Akron metropol ...

radio were originally housed in the ground level from 1940 until 1953. The top of the building also held a television

mast Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mas ...

originally used by WAKR's TV adjacent, WAKR-TV (now

WVPX-TV WVPX-TV (channel 23) is a television station licensed to Akron, Ohio, United States, serving the Cleveland area as an affiliate of Ion Television. It is owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings alongside Canton, Ohio, Canton-licensed Bounce TV affili ...

) and WAKR-FM. Erected in 1953 for WAKR-TV's sign-on and later donated to PBS member station WEAO, the antenna reached a height of but was removed in 2019.

History

The tower replaced the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

Hamilton Building, completed on the site in 1900. Around 2000, the tower was given a $2.5 million facelift, including a $1.8 million restoration of the tower's

terra-cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware object ...

, brick, and

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

facade. The painstaking process involved the removal of some 450 blocks weighing up to for cleaning and reassembly. Over 1,100 other pieces of the masonry and tilework were repaired on site. In 2007, the tower underwent another restoration. Completed by Cleveland-based VIP Restorations, it included repointing of all masonry and terra-cotta joints, repairs to the windows, structural restoration, and a restoration of the 13th floor

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

.FirstMerit
VIP Restoration VIP Restorations also helped to get the building placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The building's name changed after Huntington acquired FirstMerit in 2016. In 2019, Huntington announced the building was for sale.

References

External links

National Register of Historic Places nomination form for First National Bank Tower
*{{commons category-inline Skyscrapers in Akron, Ohio Office buildings completed in 1931 Terracotta Art Deco architecture in Ohio 1931 establishments in Ohio Skyscraper office buildings in Ohio Office buildings in Akron, Ohio